Kin Hill

20/06/2024

27/05/2024

Clearing beds of sorrel, docks and dandelions for our pumpkin patch. Welcome Stuttgart! Pipes and mesh for Ebisu, Queensland & Banana blue and other unidentified squash.

14/05/2024

Unbelievably satisfying to finally dig out the plastic left from our storm damaged geo-dome. Now we are ready to rebuild. Saved some lovely clay to soak and make stuff from. Potters where are you????

08/05/2024

Pea planting and bed building yesterday ready for growing lots of tasty vegetables! We also found this beautiful beetle (a two banded long horn beetle apparently) and saw the first swallows back on the land 💚

08/02/2024

Our 4th Primary school, Shankhill, came to plant with us in November. After a week of wind and rain the sun came out for a moment, Geese flew over head leading us into the woods where we were greeted by Hare! Games were played, the Children's Fire lit, Crow's story was told, A Peace tree was planted, Emily's tree was planted and many more trees found their place in the soft soil before dances were danced, songs were song and we all went home for lunch. Time truly is elastic!

08/02/2024

Wonderful November day with Mark Shipperlee & Anna Richardson learning about trees, their seeds, how to harvest, stratification, germinate. Focussing specifically on Oak, Crab Apple, Blackthorn and Hawthorn

19/09/2023

We had a wonderful Children's Forest North Community Day on Sunday with 15 children from Lanercost, Irthington, Hallbankgate, Walton & Lees Hill and William Howard schools! It was a day of bugs (stilt bugs, true bugs and red legged shield bugs), beetles (the deer poo eating Woodland Dor Beetle) and butterflies (the speckled wood) as well as visits from frogs of various ages and a toad or two. We wandered through the woodland, munched on apples freshly harvested and wove dream catchers. Many thanks to Deb Muscat (Dung beetle expert) and Guy Broome (Moth man) for bringing their enthusiasm and expertise and biggest thanks to the children for bringing their love to the Children's Forest.

15/07/2023

Wonderful Children's Forest Summer Tending times with Irthington Village School. We visited nettle discovering all the wonderful things nettles do for the insects, oil, our bodies and human culture. We sang songs for the nettles, fire and trees, we surveyed insects and, most importantly, tends the trees that the children planted.

15/07/2023

15/07/2023

So first the ground work (See previous post. 2 soak-aways dug with drains, foundational corners stones, then the structure went up, the frame salvaged from the cattle race, the floor re-claimed, and the beginnings of walls made with pallets foraged from Travis Perkins) Then the invite went out for cobbers.....

15/07/2023

Here is the first stage of our amazing new compost loo and shower . Incredibly fun, hard-work and satisfying to bring together all the disparate elements (many things that have been saved for years finally coming in useful like the old kitchen floor that had to be replaced after it was flooded, tin from the roof that collapses after a snow-storm, a flag-stone no longer needed and re-purposed as a shower tray, many windows salvaged from skips in carlisle but never used for the building of the ground house).

05/06/2023

Permaculture + Natural Building Workshop Weekend

Kin Hill, The Heugh, Cumbria CA8 2JW
Friday 23rd - Sunday 25th June 2023
How to Design and Build a Compost Loo + Shower (to be called The Bath House!)
Weaving community building, mindfulness and permaculture theory into practice.
Come join us for a fun-filled farm weekend to learn and build a simple Compost Loo and Shower Cabin. Learn how to work with Clay, Straw and Wood. With A drumming Workshop on Saturday evening. Embodying a regenerative way of living and working together.
What?
The Build
We are building a Compost Loo and back to the land shower, using natural, recycled and found materials, 99% from the farm, locally foraged and waste from local business. Reclaimed Stone, on-site clay sand, straw cob foundations, reclaimed timber structural frame, floor boards and steps. Reclaimed pallet walls, reclaimed windows and glass, pond excavated earth for a clay plaster. The weekend workshop will focus on timber work, straw insulation, and making cob plaster.
Sketch design see link and to the SAWA post:
Music + Meditation
Morning and/or evening Meditation and/or Yoga: to be self-organised
Friday Evening: Fire Circle Evening, Songs and Storytelling
Saturday Evening: Drumming session with Paul Dear (an experienced Drum Circle facilitator), no experience of drumming necessary/all levels of experience welcome. https://www.villagemusiccirclesglobal.com/paul-dear/ More songs and stories around the fire later.....
Where? The Heugh, Walton, Brampton, Cumbria, CA8 2JW Pin location: https://goo.gl/maps/7hdk3wkrNt5mvHoz7

When?
Arrive Friday 23rd June 2023 from 4pm for pitching tents Depart at around 6pm Sunday 25th June 2023
How?... With loving kindness...
Accommodation
Please bring your own camping things, tents, campers and vans (please let us know about vehicles we have limited spaces).
Showers + Washing
There will be a cold tap hose-pipe and a curtain area to wash behind. There are ponds and rivers to dip or swim in.
Compost Loo
There is a simple compost loo in the woods which the campers can use
Peeing discreetly in field hedges is fine.
Food
The Kin Hill team will provide: a hot wholesome vegan meal each day with fresh Kin Hill veg garden salads each day. Make your own breakfast and bring additional food to cook and share as you like. We are planning to share kitchen preparations and food responsibilities as a group. We will provide a hob, kettle, urn, washing-up area and cooking space in the barn where there is plenty of room for you to sit and enjoy your food.
Some Teas, Coffees and Oat and Cow milks will be provided
Encouraging moderation: a low-alcohol or no-alcohol, drug free event is our preference.
What to bring?
Cutlery, crockery and camping kit as you need. PLEASE BRING EVERYTHING YOU NEED. Swimsuit and towel for swimming.
Work clothes to get muddy and dirty
Gloves to protect hand in carpentry building work could be useful
Head torch for finding your way at night
Barefoot is fine for most clay and straw activities if you are used to that. Hard shoes when using tools recommended
Completely Optional Hand Tools - hammers, saw, axes, chisels, plastering trowel
Personal Protective Equipment (please take responsibility for your own health and wellbeing)
Costs
You are invited to apply for places for the Workshop Weekend. Low income £50, Medium £75, High £100. Your generosity will fund those who have less. One day tickets are available at half price, please let us know when you would like to arrive and depart.
Payments will reserve your place. Places are limited so BOOK ASAP

We are a design collective of like minded professionals who facilitate, design and build architectures for all. We collaborate, work for and with individuals, community groups, charities, organisations and governments looking to support challenged communities in a wide range of contexts. These peopl...

07/05/2023

Wonderful weekend with Randolph Matthews' intro to Voice Movement Immersion

21/02/2023

Also a little late.... We held a wonderful celebration for Winter Solstice weaving it into a project for Saturnalia and Hadrians Wall 2022. Working alongside Blue Jam Arts and the wonderful Jilly Jarman who ran a series of song writing workshops. On December 21st we gathered at a venerable Oak on Hadrian's Wall to sing the Wall Three Words song composed by the Geltsdale Singers. Then the group headed up the Studio for mulled wine and mask-making. We shared an Indian feast, danced for the spirits of Solstice & Saturnalia then processed (in the dark) to the roundhouse for storytelling, more singing and dancing around the fire. A magical evening.

21/02/2023

Very belated photos from our Children's Forest with Irthington School in November last year. Very big thanks to the wonderful Anna Richardson for coming all the way from Sussex to hold the sessions and support Chloë and I facilitate for the first time. Big thanks also to Matthew who came from Border TV to film the children for a short news slot.

28/09/2022

A nice video clip introducing Division & Connection and how it related to Hadrians Wall 1900.

26/09/2022

CHILDREN'S FOREST COMMUNITY DAY!
BIG THANKS TO THOSE CHILDREN WHO CAME FROM LANERCOST CE SCHOOL
and brought their parents for a day in the woods.
Weaving with willow with Jackie Cornell,
Apple pressing with Tim Coombe from Sustainable Brampton,
Seedy Peedy story with Chloe Cacau,
Interesting insect and fungi info with Guy Broome,
Acorns in Oatly boxes with Lulu Guinness.
Holding the shape of the day and organiser extraordinaire Alison Clarricoats.

More please!

26/09/2022

DIVISION & CONNECTION - Great weekend with Gillian Naylor, Jane Dudman & Barbie McClure working quietly together to divide the studio space in multiple unexpected ways but, in the spirit of true spontaneous friendly collaboration, creating porous boundaries that could always be negotiated. Learning that as we divide (as Hadrian's Wall divided north from south) we also connect (as Hadrian's Wall connected east to west).

12/09/2022

DIVISION & CONNNECTION: SEPTEMBER 17TH & 18TH
4 Artists explore boundaries.
Where is the line that divides us? What does it take to connect?

You are invited to an open access event to provoke thoughts, ideas, discussion around walls/boundaries/divisions of space/ownership/belonging/porosity/claiming your space/leaving your mark.

The engagement is deliberately without a clearly defined outcome to allow for the process to inform us as we work alongside anyone who shows up on the day.

With: Jane Dudman, Lucinda Guinness, Barbie McClure, Gillian Naylor.
When: September 17th 10 - 4pm, Sunday 18th 10 - 1pm

23/08/2022

Children's Forest update: We had an amazing 2 days tending the trees in July. All the children from Lanercost Primary School visited over 2 days. We were lucky to have Guy Broome assist us with an insect survey too. Trees were weeded, fires were lit, songs were sung, grass was trampled (to store carbon) frogs, baby voles and a visiting dog made it a very community centred and memorable event. Thanks to teachers and TA's at Lanercost, to Anna Gray, Alison Clarricoats and (at a distance) all the wonderful Children's Forest team. Special thanks for funding from Lake District Foundation
CHILDREN’S INSECT SURVEY
● Small skipper butterfly
● Southern skipper
ladybird
● Meadow brown
butterfly
● True bug
● Ringlet butterfly
● Grass Veneer moth
● Frog hopper
● Red soldier beetle
● Grasshopper
● Scorpion fly
● Wood louse
● Green veined white
butterfly
● Common frog
● Orb web spider
● Apple spider
● Harvestman
● Nursery web spider
● True spider
● Cranbid micro moth
● Lygaeid
● Crysomelidae
● Ghost moth
● Straw dot moth

23/08/2022

Belated photos from our Spring Equinox Sweat. Clear blue skies and T-shirt weather back in March!

22/03/2022

Here we are getting ready for the Sweat Lodge to mark the Spring Equinox this Saturday. Many thanks to Ru Johnson for holding the space with Vinod and to all who came to make it such a wonderful occasion. More photos to follow soon.

18/03/2022

Big thanks to Kath Burlinson and Nigel Hollidge for bringing their magic to The Heugh.

15/03/2022

Ensemble workshop with Nigel Hollidge and Kath Burlinson is in progress all this week. Lovely to see you here lighting up the space Joanna Rosenfeld Rachel Amey Neyire Ashworth

14/03/2022

Thanks to everyone who came yesterday to plant our second Miyawaki Tiny Forest. We planted 1125 trees.

This time no straw and no string were used which made our work much easier so we will be able to compare with last year's planting. So far most of the trees we planted last year are doing well. They are definitely being grazed by the deer but growing nonetheless. It is an experiment in plastic free/tubeless planting so it is encouraging to see that our initial efforts are growing well.

We still have another half day of planting to complete this year's 'forest'. Get in touch if you would like to lend a hand are help with our other tree planting projects.

20/02/2022

Introducing our new identity! We are now Kin Hill!!! Gillian Naylor, Arianne Sheikh, Jane Dudman Nick Dodds and Lulu Guinness are working together to set up a growing centre for arts and regenerative agriculture at The Heugh.
We will keep you posted as things develop. Already booked for this year Ensemble with Kath Burlinson and Nigel Hollidge a residental workshop for a week in March; Sweat Lodge for the Spring Equinox: Division & Connection, an installation and performance event for Hadrians Wall 1900 in September.

20/02/2022

20/02/2022

Spring Equinox Sweat Lodge coming up on Saturday 19th March. Now fully booked. Contact us if you would like to be on our email list for the next one.